NOS News•
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Jeroen de Jager
News reporter
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Gulsah Ercetin
foreign editor
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Jeroen de Jager
News reporter
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Gulsah Ercetin
foreign editor
The voices of more than a thousand adults and children echo through the gigantic hall. They sit, lie, walk and play. Each family has created its own island. On the chilly concrete floor they have put plastic rugs, a blanket on top and thin mattresses on top. Many islands have an electric radiant heater, but certainly not everywhere. This is the central hall of the Sanliurfa Stock Exchange in Turkey.
“Unfortunately we can’t wash here,” says 17-year-old Levant Ali from Syria. “I went home once in between to wash and pick up things.” Together with 33 relatives and close ones, he fled their home in a suburb of Sanliurfa after Monday’s earthquake. “Until our house has been checked by the municipality for its structural condition, we will have to stay here. No idea how long that will take.”
Reporter Gulsah Ercetin speaks to people who are sheltered in the hall:
The fear is still fully present in Turkish shelters: ‘That evening, I can’t talk about that’
Seven years ago, Levant Ali fled with his family to Turkey, away from the civil war in his country. In the end, the family built an existence in Turkey. And now this again, running again. His father tells how hard it is for him. “If only we could get out of here, if only we could go to Europe and give our children a future.”
‘Nothing to do’
Levant Ali speaks Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic and English. His former classmate Parvin also resides in the hall. Proudly, Levant tells that he and Parvin are the smartest in the school.
Parvin was sleeping when she was suddenly shaken awake by the earthquake. She ran out of the house with the rest of the family in a hurry. In all their haste, they only brought an electric hob and a power strip for their phones.
“There’s nothing to do here,” sighs Levant. “It’s best to sleep as much as possible to forget everything for now.” He also looks at his phone to pass the time. Most do. In the hall are many sleeping people, in the middle of the day. “They’re tired of everything they’ve been through,” Levant thinks.
‘Unbearable’
A Turkish family, who is eating, offers us tea. Father Memed, sitting cross-legged, suspects that it could take up to three months before his home is checked and he can return home with the family.
A Syrian family is about to leave. Their house has been checked and approved, so they can go back. Asked if it really feels safe to go home, the response is clear: it is unbearable in the hall. “We’ve been here for four days now and I’m fed up. The Turks are favored here. They get more food, more blankets. I want to get out of here, I want to go home.”
